Eddie Izzard: Circle

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All Rise...

The Charge

"There was Pope John, if you remember. Now there's Pope John Paul. And
the next Pope's gonna be Pope John Paul George…and we can see where
they're going. It's that more populist edge…"—Eddie Izzard

The Case

Circle documents the return to America of British actor-comedian Eddie
Izzard's one-man show after the massive success of his 1998 HBO stand-up
special, Dress to Kill. Recorded on June 26, 2000 at New York's Town
Hall, Circle has the same stream-of-consciousness flow as the 1998
effort, but is less personal. The night is a meditation on religion, philosophy,
and the history of ideas with Izzard taking frequent tangents to explore such
things as bastards; Popeman and Altar Boy; organ grinders and their monkeys;
Charlton Heston, the NRA, and monkeys with guns; Richard the Lionheart and the
crusades; the five major religions (including the two silly ones); airline
safety instructions; Jesus as Ripley in Aliens; baseball, its bad organ
music, the "World" Series, and how it's amazing that America wins
every year; Jesus' message to the dinosaurs; the meek inheriting the
earth—by force; the true meaning of awesome; American rejection of
the metric system; the secret talents of animals (including seals and balls, and
tigers and banjos); Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"; Da Vinci's
non-working helicopter; Venn diagrams; and Star Wars and the Death Star
cafeteria.

Sound scattered? It is, and therein lies the danger: if you like a comedian
who gets to the point, Izzard is not for you. If you're able to accept his
rhythms, idiosyncrasies, and the central role of the absurd in his work, though,
he can be quite funny, even if the act swings sometimes violently from hilarious
to droll and back again. Izzard's comedy is smart, but not pretentiously so;
it's often biting but never venomous. It's an even-keeled, but rapid-fire
affair. Perhaps the most startling thing about Izzard is how he tenaciously
works his tangents until they're fully woven into the fabric of the evening's
show. For instance, near the beginning of Circle he takes a swipe at the
lack of gun control in America by changing the famous slogan to "guns don't
kill people; people kill people [and monkeys kill people, if they have
guns]." Absurd, to be sure, but it segues into monkeys with guns assaulting
NRA chief Charlton Heston's house (he's had trouble with monkeys in his film
career, after all). Nearly an hour (and many tangents) later, the monkeys return
to fire starting pistols at the Stoned Olympics, where athletes are allowed to
partake in drugs as long as they are of the performance debilitating variety.
Now, either Izzard is incredibly adept at tying together loose ends and drawing
connections between unrelated topics, or his serpentine act is carefully planned
and he's a master of mimicking the scattered and sometimes dead-end nature of
stream-of-consciousness. Either way, he's talented.

When all is said and done, Circle is enjoyable but Dress to
Kill is a better, more consistent introduction to Izzard's work.
Circle is best enjoyed as a companion to the original. When viewed in
tandem, the two programs provide much insight into just how quick-witted,
inventive, and improvisational Izzard is. In Circle, for instance, he
returns to Dress to Kill's conversations between Jesus and God, but the
subject matter discussed between Father and Son is new and once again fully
integrated into the night's themes. For those who've seen the 1998 act, the
shtick is both familiar and fresh.

Circle sports a vibrant, full screen transfer with fully saturated
colors. The show was shot on video and looks it, but you won't find any
shimmering or compression artifacts. Audio is Dolby stereo and, considering the
content of the show is one guy talking, that's just fine. English, Spanish, and
French subtitles are provided (the English subs are a nice feature for those
North Americans who have trouble making out English accents).

Among the supplements is Dress to Circle, Izzard's performance of his
act in France and in French. It's aptly called the "raw cut" because
it was shot with a video camera on a tripod. Audio was recorded live from the
house with the camera's microphone, but is decent considering the amateur video
aesthetics. The show runs 56 minutes, and Izzard provides a full-length
commentary. Too bad Dress to Circle was included on Dress to Kill
and is unnecessary here. There's also a commentary by Izzard for the
Circle main program. A talk track on a stand-up comedy disc is odd, but
it's surprisingly entertaining as Izzard is smart, insightful, and wry
throughout. The Trivia Track extra is an exact aping of VH1's Pop-Up
Video: we're thrown information about New York, Town Hall, and the variety
of subjects Izzard touches on in his act. It's straight-up trivia, adding zero
in the way of humor. Finally, a 23-minute documentary gives a behind-the-scenes
look at two of Izzard's shows, one at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles as
well as the Town Hall gig. It's presented in 1.78:1 non-anamorphic widescreen
with Dolby stereo audio, and is reasonably entertaining.

If you're a major fan of Izzard's stand-up, Circle is for you. If you
think he's funny but are far from fanatical, give the disc a rent. If you've
never seen the actor-comedian do his one-man show, check out Dress to
Kill before you give Circle a spin.